Low cost, miniaturization, efficiency, and high performances are key factors that determine the successes in today consumer electronics. That is, consumers prefer low cost, small, high performance, electronic products that are also energy efficient. Efficient and high performing products require the use of integrated circuits such as switch-mode voltage regulators to deliver high amounts of power efficiently. Low costs require that the semiconductor integrated circuits use simple, fewer processing steps so that the manufacturing cost per unit is low. Miniaturization drives the integrated circuits toward using the least amount of silicon area within a semiconductor chip. Over the years, efforts to improve the cost-size-performance requirements have proven that the conventional circuit architecture and their manufacturing methods may have reached its performance limitations. Maintaining the same circuit architecture and layout while attempting to achieve the cost-size-performance requirements only increase costs and obtains unsatisfactory results.
With reference to FIG. 1A, the schematic diagram of a conventional switch-mode voltage regulator circuit 100 connected to a load (RL) 160 is described. Conventional circuit architecture and layout for switch-mode voltage regulator circuit 100 typically includes a gate driver circuit block, a switching circuit block, and a boot strap charging circuit block 120, which are all laid out separately as discrete components on a semiconductor die. Switching circuit block further includes a high-side power Metal Oxide Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) switch 102, a low-side power Metal Oxide Field Effect Transistor (MOSFET) switch 103. The switch output (SW) of conventional switch-mode voltage regulator circuit 100 is then connected to an output filter 150 and to boot strap charging block 120.
More particularly, gate driver circuit block includes a high-side gate driver circuit 101HS and a low-side gate driver circuit 101LS. High-side gate driver circuit 101HS is connected in series to high-side power MOSFET switch 102 while low-side gate driver circuit 101LS is connected to low-side power MOSFET switch 103 of switching circuit block 110. The input terminal of high-side gate driver circuit 101HS receives an inverse drive signal ( PWM) that drives the gate of high-side power MOSFET switch 102. Accordingly, high-side gate driver circuit 101HS connects a boot strap supply node (VBST) 101U to the gate of high-side power MOSFET switch 102 at a logic LOW input and connects the gate of high-side MOSFET switch 102 gate to source and a switch node (SW) 101SW at a logic HIGH input. The input terminal of low-side gate driver circuit 101LS receives a drive signal (PWM) that drives low-side power MOSFET switch 103. Accordingly, low-side gate driver circuit 101LS connects supply voltage (VCC) to the gate of low-side MOSFET switch 103 at a logic LOW input and connects the gate of low-side MOSFET switch 103 to the source and an electrical ground 101G at a logic HIGH input.
Continuing with the description of the conventional architecture of switch-mode voltage regulator circuit 100, the drain of high-side power MOSFET switch 102 is connected to receive an unregulated input voltage (VIN). The source of high-side power MOSFET switch 102 is connected to the drain of low-side power MOSFET switch 103 at switch node (SW) 101SW. The source of low-side power MOSFET switch 103 is connected to electrical ground 110G.
Referring again to conventional architecture of FIG. 1A, output filter 150 includes an inductor 151 connected to an output capacitor (COUT) 152. The first terminal of inductor 151 is connected to switch node 101SW, the second terminal of inductor 151 is connected to output capacitor (COUT) 152 to form an output terminal 161 of prior-art switch mode voltage regulator 100. The other terminal of output capacitor (COUT) 152 is connected to electrical ground 110 and to the source terminal of low-side power MOSFET switch 103.
Finally, in the conventional architecture as shown in FIG. 1A, boot strap charging circuit block 120 includes a diode (D1) 121 and a boot capacitor (CBOOT) 122. The anode terminal of diode (D1) 121 is connected to supply voltage (VCC) 123, while the cathode terminal is connected to one end of boot capacitor (CBOOT) 122 at pull-up node 101U. The other end of capacitor (CBOOT) 122 is connected to switch node (SW) 101SW.
In operation, high side MOSFET switch 102 receives an inverse drive signal ( PWM) at the input terminal of high-side gate driver circuit 101HS. Accordingly, high-side power MOSFET switch 102 is either turned on or turned off, depending on the voltage level of the drive signal ( PWM) signal. At the same time, low-side MOSFET switch is OFF because low-side gate driver circuit 101LS receives the opposite driver signal (PWM). The turning on of high-side power MOSFET switch 102 and turning off low-side power MOSFET 103 causes switch node (SW) 101SW to be coupled to input voltage (VIN). Conversely turning on of low-side power MOSFET switch 103 and turning off high-side power MOSFET 102 causes switch node (SW) 101SW to be coupled to electrical ground 101G. In switch-mode regulators, the turn on and off cycle of high-side MOSFET switch 102 and low-side MOSFET switch 103 is substantially greater than the filter frequency of formed by inductor 151 and capacitor filter 152. Hence, output voltage terminal (VOUT) 161 is the time average of input voltage (VIN) and the PWM signal's duty cycle. The result of the rising and falling of the inductor current (IL) cause an average output voltage (VOUT) to be seen by load (RL) 160. Therefore, the output voltage (VOUT) at output terminal 161 is proportional to the input voltage (VIN) and either the duty cycle or the frequency of the pulse width modulation signal (PWM). Boot strap charging circuit 120 ensures that high-side gate driver circuit 101HS receives voltages to turn on and off high-side power MOSFET switch 102.
The circuit architecture of conventional switch mode voltage regulator 100 described above can be pushed to deliver only a limited amount of current and power efficiency. Beyond this limitation, the cost-performance of conventional switch mode voltage regulator 100 seems to degrade significantly. This is due to the inherent limitations of high-side power MOSFET switch 102, low-side power MOSFET switch 103, and the conventional circuit architecture and layout that give rise to high interconnection resistance and high switching loss, especially when switching at high frequencies. High interconnection resistance causes high switching loss that renders conventional switch mode voltage regulator 100 undesirable. Furthermore, the architecture and layout of prior-art switch mode voltage regulator 100 that involves separate discrete components are difficult to meet the miniaturization trend in today integrated circuits.
Referring now to FIG. 1B, a model circuit 100B for the high-side gate driver circuit 101HS, its corresponding high side MOSFET switch 102, low-side gate driver circuit 101LS, and its corresponding low side MOSFET switch 103 in conventional switch-mode voltage regulator circuit 100 is shown. In switch-mode voltage regulator circuits such as switch-mode voltage regulator circuit 100 in FIG. 1A, a critical parameter affecting efficiency is how fast the high-side MOSFET switch 102 and low-side MOSFET switch 103 can turn on and off. Typically, a real world MOSFET switch has a gate coupling resistance capacitance product that can be modeled as a RC circuit electrically coupled to an ideal MOSFET switch. The rise time of the gate coupling resistance capacitance product in response to a Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) determines how fast and how efficient a MOSFET switch can switch. High-side power MOSFET switch 102 includes a gate resistance (RGATE) 102R and a gate capacitance (CGATE) 102C, both of which electrically coupled to an ideal MOSFET switch 102W having an ON drain source resistance (RDS(ON)). In ideal high-side MOSFET switch 102W, the drain terminal is electrically connected to a supply pad 102SP while the source terminal is electrically connected to a switch pad 101SW. High-side gate driver circuit 101HS is an inverter that includes a pull-up PMOS transistor 101HSUP and a pull-down NMOS transistor 101HSDN. Similarly, in ideal low-side MOSFET switch 103W, the drain terminal is electrically connected to switch pad 101SW while the source terminal is electrically connected to a ground pad 101G. Low-side gate driver circuit 101LS is an inverter that includes a pull-up PMOS transistor 101LSUP and a pull-down NMOS transistor 101LSDN.
In practice, gate resistance (RGATE) of a MOSFET switch is typically 2 ohms and gate capacitance (CGATE) is typically 5 nano farads (5 nF). The gate coupling resistance capacitance product (also known as time constant TDISCRETE) of conventional circuit architecture and layout for prior-art switch-mode voltage regulator circuit 100 is: TDISCRETE=CGATE*RGATE=(5 nF)×(2Ω)=10 nsec. With this time constant (TDISCRETE) of 10 nano seconds, the conventional architecture will yield a power loss of more than 1 watts when switching frequency is above 500 kHz, and the output current is above 20 Amps. This is because switching loss is a significant power loss factors for switch-mode voltage regulator 100 when the switching frequency is above 500 kHz. Switching loss (LS) approximately equals to the product of input voltage (VIN), switching frequency (FS), output current (IOUT), rise time (TDISRETE). In other words,
            L      S        ~          V      IN        ×      F    S    ×      I    OUT    ×                    T        DISCRETE            2        .  As described above in FIG. 1A, given input voltage (VIN), switching frequency (FS), output current (IOUT), and power loss (LS) are fixed by design specifications, the conventional architecture and layout of prior-art switch-mode voltage regulator circuit 100 that involves discrete components cannot reduce the time constant (TDISCRETE). Thus, what needed now is a new circuit architecture and layout for switch-mode voltage regulator circuits that can substantially reduce the time constant or the gate coupling resistance capacitance product (TDISCRETE) of the MOSFET switches, thus improving the cost-performance factor of a switch-mode voltage regulator.
Accordingly, there are needs for a novel circuit architecture and layout for a switch-mode voltage regulator that does not have the limitations of a conventional MOSFET switch in power delivery and efficiency. Moreover, there are needs for a novel circuit architecture that enables a switch-mode voltage regulator to have low manufacturing costs and reduced in size. Finally, there are needs for novel circuit architecture and layout that can substantially reduce the gate coupling resistance capacitance product specified by the RC equivalent of the MOSFET switches so that the interconnection resistance can be substantially reduced at high frequencies. It is expected that the present invention may fulfill these needs.